First Post... and a question for you.

[brentvossler]

Hello, I have been a member for a while and sometimes hop on here for information and creep around when I have some free time. But this is my first post. I am 32, was in the Navy and Army for about 7 years total and have been working in tech all over CA, mostly chasing startup dreams. I have been diving in San Diego since being certified in 2014 but I am located in Texas now. I have about 150 dives so far. I finally went on my first Texas dive a few days ago on some rigs off of Matagorda, TX with a buddy and it was pretty awesome. As a kid, I used to jump off the shrimp boat and snorkel around the rigs but diving was way cooler being able to get down within the structure. Speared some fish and had a blast. Water wasn't quite as clear as what I'm used to in California... but I'll take 20-30ft of vis and 70 degree water temp and be happy anywhere

I would love some feedback on an idea... I am thinking about buying a house here in Matagorda and turning it into a dive lodge / dive club. Subscription / membership model. Pay the monthly fee and get unlimited access to the lodge, hangout, throw back some beer, weekend dinners, unlimited air fills, use of gear with deposit, come-and-go privileges... any perks i can think of. Members are allowed to have up to three nights booked at any given time (in order to not hoard the holidays from other members). Depending on what I can get ahold of, it would be somewhat open concept. Additional days are walk-in basis as long as there is vacancy the morning of your intended stay. Once your reservation has come and gone, you are free to use your reservations again for your next stay. (Freedom boat club does this so that people don't abuse the system and to me it seems fair to other members). Gear rentals are free but with a deposit in case of damage or loss. Gear/shop will be near cost, maybe with just a small markup to also help with expenses. The active local diver would have their "spot" and the traveling diver would have a home away from home, a very inexpensive place to stay and meet local divers. The perks of eventually growing to multiple locations and having access to all locations seems like an amazing thing! The cost of membership is what many pay just to go on vacation ONCE a year... but to have 365 access to every location for one monthly fee, year round? It seems like a great concept.

Anybody ever tried this before? Thoughts? More importantly, if this was a thing, what would you pay?

 

[Compressor]

Welcome to SB. I think you have an interesting idea. I think the devil is in the details. We have a general idea but the specifics and your costs will determine your customer base.

 

[mcpowell]

Welcome to SB.

Just my opinion...I would not want to anchor myself to one diving location. Part of the enjoyment is going to various places. Of course it all depends on the costs.

 

[KathyV]

I have never dived in Texas, but I am grateful to all the dive pioneers that have provided great diving opportunities for me to enjoy over many years.

You are young and you have a novel idea and I think that you should explore it. My only word of caution is that whenever I think about buying property on the seaside, I remember all the hurricanes that have threatened and devastated that area in the past - and then I decide to stay a visitor and not become an owner. I'm not saying that should stop you, but it is one more thing to weigh when considering the pros and cons.

 

[brentvossler]

Welcome to SB.

Just my opinion...I would not want to anchor myself to one diving location. Part of the enjoyment is going to various places. Of course it all depends on the costs.

Thanks for the feedback. We’re you speaking towards me anchoring myself to one location or local divers being committed to one spot? I feel that many people already have some loyalty to “their shop”, etc.

My idea would need to get bigger and expand across location eventually to realize maximum benefits. But to start, it seems like a cool idea to have a “hub” of some sorts for local diver. Traveling divers would have a *free place to stay and connect with other diver when they traveled.

For example, (I’m in Texas now) but when I was diving in San Diego, I wanted to sometimes check out Orange County or Los Angeles but the expenses of hotels, networking to find meet ups, advice on where to go, was just a tedious process if I wanted to drive up for a night or two and explore something new.

Membership wouldn’t be prohibited to just one location, but gives access to all locations.

And still curious about what someone would pay for this type of membership? Thanks guys!

 

[mcpowell]

Thanks for the feedback. We’re you speaking towards me anchoring myself to one location or local divers being committed to one spot? I feel that many people already have some loyalty to “their shop”, etc.

I was speaking towards myself not wanting to be committed to one spot. If your dive location was terrific (Cozumel, Belize, etc) then people would want to return several times a year. The next tier down would likely not have the draw. Some of my friends have duck hunting locations where they are members year after year, but I wanted to go where the ducks were that year (when I did go). The same goes for snow skiing. I like to vary the locations.

 

[brentvossler]

I was speaking towards myself not wanting to be committed to one spot. If your dive location was terrific (Cozumel, Belize, etc) then people would want to return several times a year. The next tier down would likely not have the draw. Some of my friends have duck hunting locations where they are members year after year, but I wanted to go where the ducks were that year (when I did go). The same goes for snow skiing. I like to vary the locations.

I gotcha. The idea be that there is a place for you to have 24/7 access to air fills, hangout spot, near-cost access to gear, free trips on the lodge boat... All-inclusive access to everything with a monthly fee. As the place expands and new locations are added, you get access to each and every new location. and most importantly, a place to stay for free. at a dive lodge. included in your monthly fee. I could give a **** about the place being booked 100% of the time... the number that matters most whether or not there are enough local divers paying in each location to support the operations.

What I'm really looking for is some sort of idea of what people would pay monthly/yearly to have this sort of thing. If there's enough interest, it seems like a venture worth starting. I've been a tech entrepreneur for the past 6 or 7 years and I've got the time and energy to move onto a new venture... but I want it to be focused around something i love. I'm tired of pretending that I love to write software.

 

[txgoose]

What I'm really looking for is some sort of idea of what people would pay monthly/yearly to have this sort of thing. If there's enough interest, it seems like a venture worth starting. I've been a tech entrepreneur for the past 6 or 7 years and I've got the time and energy to move onto a new venture... but I want it to be focused around something i love. I'm tired of pretending that I love to write software.

My caveat is that I have absolutely zero entrepreneurial spirit. So, I am going to be overly conservative. All that said.....

I would suspect that if this were a thing, some place like Miami or San Diego would be the place. Big populations, probably fairly large diver populations (relative to Houston and Corpus), and fairly nice water. I would be nervous about Matagorda. It is two plus hours from any population center. I could only go hang out on the weekends. And not every weekend. And I wouldn't drive there for fills unless I was diving out of there. If the diving were good enough, I'd pay up to a couple of hundred bucks a month, but I better be getting 8-12 tanks worth of diving out of it. Otherwise, I'll just pay the $120-ish bucks to do three tank boat dives out of any of the FL panhandle operators with a wide variation of dives. Out of Matagorda, you'll have a select couple of places to dive and not many will be near shore.

That's my answer. Up to $200 a month for a fairly wide variety of diving in 8+ tank "allowance." And that is mainly because I am eat up with diving. If I ever backslide to just enjoying it a lot, that might drop to $100-$150 a month for 3 to 6 tanks.

I love the idea of an awesome diving community club. I just don't see Matagorda (or likely any part of TX) being able to support the costs. I like the concept. Similar to a yacht club with a club house. But IMO, boat people are far more prevalent. And they are already comfortable with throwing away money. j/k

Set up in Panama City Beach and we'll talk.

 

[swimlikethefish]

I would venture to say $100 per month for the year and I would do it. I would most certainly get my money out of it, using just gas fills alone. The lodging would just be the cherry on top. I think you should think about it like a gym membership. Most people would sign up and use it only a few times. Then the rest of their payments go into keeping the costs down for those that use the facilities the most. I could see your idea working. I'd pay the $1200 per year and I don't even live near Texas. But that would cover 2 trips to Texas a year just in lodging. However, if you had a location in Texas and Florida then I would be all over it. Possibly even more than $1200 at that point. Airfare is cheap enough that if I was involved in your co-op idea I would probably travel monthly to dive, instead of only 3-4 times a year.

 

[Littlerayray]

The problem with your idea is cost especially with air fills the compressors my lds use need to be moved with heavy equipment or block and tackle and the hp lp banks they have over 50 they have 4 hp compressors their expensive to maintain which is one reason they have 4 it's for when they break down and they do often.
They can still fill tanks my dive club has a 60 dollar annual fee they do club dives we'd thurs and Sunday as well as pick up dives sign up sheet the dives on sundays are special private charter dives our club is the only ones on the boat those cost 40 dollars extra now to do the same charter dive outside the club would cost approx 60-80 dollars per person roughly no rentals are provided but you are insured through the club and you are guaranteed to have fun
That being said before you spend any money do a lot of market research and figure out what it will cost to operate
Don't forget no members equals no money people don't want to pay a stupid high price either